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Window display provides public display of affection

Photo

Photo by Bill Olmsted

Sarah Kopp, owner of Perfectly Plus Woemn’s Consignments in Janesville, has joined other city merchants in urging people to buy local items for Valentine’s Day. Kopp is displaying a variety of local goods and services in the window of her North Main Street store.

JANESVILLE — A fabulous dress and dinner for two.

Follow that up with coffee and conversation, cozy furniture and chocolate-dipped strawberries.

If Valentine's Day springs to mind, you've got it half right.

The other half is that all the elements can be provided by local businesses, which is the basis for a window display at a downtown Janesville business.

Sarah Kopp, one of the owners of Perfectly Plus Women's Consignments, has put together a window display that she says outlines the perfect Valentine's Day done locally.

Kopp teamed up with other local businesses for the display at her store at 123 N. Main St.

The display and flyers Kopp hands out suggest a dress from her store, dinner at The Metropolitan and coffee at Codo's Coffee House. The romance then can move home to cozy furnishings provided by Home Again Consignment Home Furnishings and the chocolate-dipped strawberries from Fudglie's.

"With everything that's going on, it's more important than ever that we look out for our neighbors and take care of each other," Kopp said. "We need to encourage people to shop locally.

"The whole GM thing is awful, but there are so many business that are still here and hopefully aren't going anywhere."

Shopping locally isn't something Kopp thought about until she opened her store in August 2007.

"Now I think about it every day: Where can I get this that's not Walmart?" she said.

Kopp started her displays with one before Halloween. She said people stopped by her store just to see what she had done for Christmas.

"We've had a really good response from everyone," she said.

Valentine's Day will pass this weekend, but Kopp already has some ideas for her next window display: St. Patrick's Day.